Newborn animals and those in (intense) farming in particular, are prone to bacterial and other infections such as viral infections. These infections can lead to diarrhoea associated with weight loss and, in severe cases, even to death of the newborn. For example, several years ago, diarrhoeal cases in newborn piglets have been described in swine farms from different geographical situations in Spain. It is believed that said diarrhoea is a symptom in these animals, whereas the causative factor of said symptom is sometimes difficult to locate. In many cases of diarrhoea in newborn swine for example, it is possible to isolate possibly unfavorable/undesired bacterial strains, such as Escherichia coli, alone or in combination with Clostridium perfringens or Clostridium difficile, but diarrhoea is usually detected just after birth and routine treatment and prophylaxis procedures are oftentimes not effective. In other cases, diarrhoea is caused, for example, by viral infections, such as infections caused by rotavirus, coronavirus, norovirus adenovirus and/or astrovirus.
Without wishing to be bound to any particular theory, it is believed that dysbiosis (also called dysbacteriosis) may be a causative factor. Dysbiosis refers to a condition with microbial imbalances on or within the body. In farming animals, swine in particular, dysbiosis may be caused by indiscriminate use of antibiotics during sow maintenance, producing alterations in newborn piglet's intestinal flora.
In view of these disadvantages of the use of antibiotics, it is recommended to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. On the other hand, alternative methods of treatment of the newborn animals would then be required to replace the commonly used antibiotics.
Since the EU recommends since 2005 to reduce the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in swine breading (Amended by Regulation (EC) No 378/2005 of 4 Mar. 2005), animal breeders are longing for alternatives which can improve the general health status of (farm) animals, particularly in the early days of life. The present inventors provide a solution to this problem, and said solution is described in the following. The present invention thus solves several problems caused by state of the art methods, and the advantageous effects will be detailed below.